Best Country Artist / Band

Gold Winner Makayla Lynn

Silver Winner Brooklyn Blackmore

Bronze Winner Amanda Riley

Your favourite country artist is also the youngest winner in this poll, by a notable amount. “It has been an incredibly exciting year,” says the 16-year-old East Hants resident, calling after school. “I released a record”—On a Dare and a Prayer—“and put it out at the end of March, so I was able to tour around eastern Canada and Nashville.” In August, Rolling Stone named her one of the top 10 Country Artists to Watch (“a huge highlight of my entire life”) and Lynn is currently taking correspondence courses to graduate a year early so she can permanently relocate to Nashville, where she’s been making writing trips since she was nine. “It’s a really surreal experience, to see how many people are all chasing after the same dream,” she says. “You’d think it’d be more of a competitive place, but everybody is lifting everybody else up.” Here’s one more boost.

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